In This Section

ARMS

The advanced, relocatable, modularized, standardized (ARMS) central processing facility is the centrepiece of Grizzly’s steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) development approach. ARMS resolves many of the challenges of traditional SAGD.

ARMS’ most important elements are:

Scalability – Each ARMS core is designed to produce 20,000 barrels per day of steam, sufficient for bitumen production of approximately 5,000-8,000 barrels per day, depending on specific reservoir performance. The smaller plant scale can economically exploit smaller reservoirs, while multiple cores can be set up in parallel to efficiently exploit large reservoirs. This is the manageable-sized development increment that Grizzly was seeking;

Modular design – The plant is built in modules under controlled shop conditions. Fabrication of the components for the modules can be sourced worldwide to decrease costs and increase capacity as needed. The completed modules are transported to site along the high-load highway corridors in Alberta and are largely bolted together. ARMS modules are close-coupled and stacked, combining into one plant structure and thereby reducing the number of pipe racks and the amount of steel used. In addition to being pre-fabricated, modules are hydro-tested and pre-commissioned, further reducing the need for expensive field construction. Field construction time is targeted to take six months instead of 15-24 months for a conventional SAGD facility; and

Speed – Standardizing the design, sourcing components worldwide, and performing the bulk of the assembly work at offsite facilities cuts field construction time from typically 15-24 months for a conventional SAGD facility to just six months for an ARMS core. In addition, plant construction can begin before project regulatory approval is received, since most of the construction occurs off-site. Grizzly believes that using ARMS can reduce by a full year the typically four-year SAGD project cycle time from filing of a regulatory application to first bitumen production;

Flexibility – The ARMS design can be used for any SAGD project, anywhere. Scale is attained simply by running two or more ARMS plants in parallel, achieving faster and more flexible peak production than from a conventional SAGD facility. Self-generated power reduces infrastructure requirements and improves reliability. Each ARMS core operates independently of the other, meaning that one core can be off-line for maintenance without the project’s entire production being interrupted. When production in one reservoir area winds down, the bolt-together design enables a plant to be disassembled, moved and re-used in a new area, such as reservoir edges. This addresses the conventional mismatch between SAGD pool drainage, which is ideally 15 years, and facility operating life, which is typically 20-25 years or longer. Faster drainage increases a project’s net present value. In the extreme case of a reservoir simply not performing as required, plants can be disassembled and redeployed, again reducing risk;

Repeatability – Grizzly intends to use the same ARMS design at Algar Lake and at May River. Over the next decade, Grizzly plans to install over 20 ARMS cores at four projects with potentially 170,000 barrels per day of peak production. The plant design avoids extensive custom engineering required for each conventional SAGD facility, providing a platform for continued capital, maintenance and operating efficiency;

Capital efficiency – Grizzly’s first ARMS plant at Algar Lake achieved industry-average capital efficiency, based on comparing the published costs per daily installed barrel of steam production capacity for a number of competitors’ SAGD facilities. We intend to reach industry-leading capital efficiencies in future ARMS plants by incorporating lessons learned from designing, building and operating the first plant.

Operating efficiency – The same relatively small engineering, construction and operations team, plus key subcontractors, can be re-deployed for successive ARMS projects, gaining experience with each iteration, while design and engineering work can be largely re-used; and

Capital requirements and risks – The smaller scale and self-contained nature of each ARMS plant means that the overall project’s development pace can be easily adjusted to suit changes in commodity prices, labour availability, materials costs and capital availability. The repeatable facility design reduces project risks. Project financing requirements are low, and lead times are short, reducing shareholders’ capital risks.

A further innovation is Grizzly’s highly automated “shadow” control room in Calgary, which is linked via modern telecommunications to the field plant. It will serve as a centre to train plant operations people, and to model and test advanced process controls in order to progressively optimize plant operations over time. Grizzly anticipates that higher levels of process control could improve the reliability of thermal heavy oil operations. Grizzly’s vision is to move from a conventional oilfield model of operations to more of a petrochemical or refining model, which stresses minimum downtime and maximum efficiency.